Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) swept to victory on both Illinois dirt miles on the USAC Silver Crown National Championship schedule in 2024, his latest coming in the Ted Horn 100 on Saturday at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds (Jack Reitz Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Du Quoin, Illinois (August 31, 2024)………After standing atop the leader board in practice, qualifying and the 100-mile race two weeks earlier at the Springfield Mile, there was only one way that Justin Grant could top himself. Yet he did.
On Saturday’s 70th running of the Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois, it was “second verse, same as the first” for the Ione, Calif. native and his Hemelgarn Racing/NOS Energy Drink – Super Fitness – Hemelgarn Enterprises/DRC/Speedway Chevy.
After pacing the field in practice, Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying and the main event at Du Quoin, Grant stamped himself into the record books once more as the 23rd driver to win champ car races under the AAA and/or USAC banner at both one-mile Illinois dirt tracks in a single season.
On that particular list, Grant joined Tony Bettenhausen (1951), Sam Hanks (1953), Jimmy Bryan (1955-56), Johnny Thomson (1958), A.J. Foyt (1964 & 1967), Al Unser (1970), Mario Andretti (1973-74), Gary Bettenhausen (1983), Jack Hewitt (1986-87-93), Chuck Gurney (1989-94-96), Paul White (2001), J.J. Yeley (2002), Tracy Hines (2006), Brian Tyler (2008) and Chris Windom (2018).
“It’s awfully, awfully special,” Grant exclaimed. “To sweep the miles, and to have my name on a list with names like that, is incredible. Sometimes it feels like I’ve written mine on there with a crayon. But I’m starting to get a little more used to the feeling and I’m certainly liking it.”
Despite starting from the pole, Grant fell back to second in the early stages before chasing down and overtaking Logan Seavey on lap 32, then going on to lead the remaining 69 laps and capture his second consecutive Ted Horn 100 victory, the first driver to achieve such a repeat triumphantly at Du Quoin since Shane Cockrum in 2014 and 2015.
Despite completing 98 percent of the laps, Grant had 100 percent of the field covered in what was his third-straight dirt mile victory with the series, the longest stretch of success by any driver since Kody Swanson scored four consecutive on the mile dirt tracks between 2014 and 2015.
Furthermore, Grant is now the first driver since Tracy Hines in 2006 to win the pole and the race at both Illinois dirt miles in the same season. Grant’s seventh career USAC Silver Crown score also elevated him to 17th on the all-time win list alongside fellow series champions Jerry Coons Jr., Rick Hood and George Snider. In the process, Grant cut his championship point deficit behind Kody Swanson to just 12 after maximizing his output by gaining 76 at Du Quoin.
In what turned out to be the first rain-shortened USAC Silver Crown race at Du Quoin since the 1974 edition 50 years ago, weather was imminent throughout much of the day. That aspect, in addition to all of the other necessities of successfully navigating the scheduled 100-mile distance, weighed heavily on Grant’s gameplan.
“We raced with the rain in mind all day,” Grant revealed. “I pushed a little harder early and through the middle section of the race than I wanted to. But with what we had for the weather all day, we worked really hard to make sure we were quick time in hot laps in case we rained out qualifying, so we could get those points and start on the pole. We approached the race a little bit like, ‘hey, we might have rain toward the second half of this thing. Let’s not save it all for the last restart.’”
Much of the first half was marred by accidents that led to a Ted Horn 100 record five red flag periods, all of which each driver walked away from. Don Droud Jr., making his USAC Silver Crown debut, was the first such victim on lap seven after his right front spindle broke while running 11th, sending him straight into the outside turn one wall before flipping over.
Jimmy Light was next in line to find misfortune on lap 15 when he suddenly slowed in turn two while running 15th, which sent him skating up the racetrack right into the path of Brady Bacon who collided with him, resulting in Light impacting the wall and flipping over. Beforehand, Bacon was required to start at the tail after going to a backup car due to a transmission failure with his primary ride.
It was 22nd running Danny Long’s turn next as he banged the outside wall exiting turn four and flipped over on lap 27. Danny Jennings did the same in turn three, making his mark on the turn three wall before flipping several times in his rude introduction to the Du Quoin mile.
As far as the “almost” incidents, Grant nearly had one in his pursuit of Seavey for the lead on lap 23. After nearly getting into the back of Seavey’s rear bumper, Grant turned his wheel left, right, left as he swerved to avoid blasting Seavey. The close call proved costly in the short term as Grant saw a one car length deficit balloon to eight car lengths. However, it came within a whisker of ending his day prematurely.
“I got down in there and I had to jump on the brakes late,” Grant recalled. “I had the left front down in the dust and the right front in the rubber and it hooked me back right. I was facing the wrong way! I thought, ‘oh boy, we’ve really done it here.’ I was really fortunate to get away with that one and regroup and have another shot at (Seavey).”
Once Grant gathered himself, he quickly found his footing again and slid past Seavey on the bottom of turn one on lap 33 to place himself in the race lead. Seavey fought back by cutting under Grant between the long sweeping turns of one and two to retake it, albeit briefly. Grant had the last word as he powered back around the outside of Seavey exiting turn two to take over the top spot, and for good.
“I felt like I could make a lot of right rear grip and stay really straight where guys were having to slide their cars, so I could run a really good pace and keep my right rear tire under me and that allowed me to make that move there,” Grant recounted. “I was able to dive in, get across him and still make enough grip out of the rubber to come back to it and stay with him. We were able to hold him down off two. These things on a mile with the fuel load take a minute to get wound up. It’s not like a sprint car where you can just fire down to the other end. You keep them where they can’t get back to the throttle quite as quick as quickly as they want to. When his motor bogs, you can roll up off there and beat him down to three.”
Kody Swanson soon slotted into the second position on lap 42 after sweeping around the outside of Seavey on the back straight. Grant possessed a 1.6 second lead at the time, but Swanson, a two-time winner of the Ted Horn in his own right in 2010 and 2017, soon made it a contest as he clamped down on Grant throughout the second half of the show.
“In these things, you want to lead them if you can,” Grant explained. “If you feel like you can get there at a decent pace, that’s kind of what you want to do because you can control the race a little bit. Kody was really good there at the end, but we had track position, and we could make a lot of roll speed through the center.”
Rookie drivers had their share of the headlines around the midway point of the race and beyond. Saban Bibent, making just his second career series start, entered the top four by the 50th circuit. Meanwhile, fellow Rookie Briggs Danner was surging, making his way into third past Seavey on lap 65.
Ultimately, heartbreak bit Bibent on lap 88 while running fifth as he entered turn one without brakes, nearly colliding with the concrete perimeter between turns one and two. Moments later, he dropped low and pulled in, ending a memorable run with an 18th place result.
Tire wear became the next issue at hand on lap 90 when fifth running C.J. Leary fell by the wayside with a flat right rear tire, which necessitated a caution. At the very same moment, seventh running Chase Stockon’s right rear went kaput as did eighth running Shane Cockrum’s, sidelining three of the top seven in one fell swoop.
Mitchel Moles, running fourth with five miles to go, had his best Silver Crown run to date come to an end when he ran out of fuel and stopped on the main straightaway.
As the field prepared to face a green-white-checkered restart to decide the finish of the race, Mother Nature had other plans. As the rain continued to fall, cars were ultimately called into the pits. After a delay and an attempt at working in the dirt, it became clear that the race would not be able to continue. It was estimated that an hour would be required to get the track surface back into raceable shape. However, with a deadline to complete the race within a certain timeframe looming (due to preparations for a concert taking place on the stage at the track), the race was deemed complete with Justin Grant the victor over Kody Swanson, Briggs Danner, Jerry Coons Jr. and Logan Seavey.
For Kody Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.), the driver of the Doran-Binks Racing/Mission Foods – Wilke Orthodontics – Glenn Farms/Maxim/Hampshire Chevy, it was his best result at Du Quoin since winning in 2017.
Meanwhile, Briggs Danner (Allentown, Pa.) recorded his best career result in his Rookie year with the USAC Silver Crown series, starting and finishing third aboard his DMW Motorsports/Fuel Mart – Power Control Systems – Advanced Materials Technologies/DRC/R07 Chevy.
Chris Fetter (Troy, Mo.) raced from 22nd to 10th to earn hard charger honors along with his best career USAC Silver Crown finish. His performance occurred exactly 10 years to the day of his first USAC start on August 31, 2014, also at Du Quoin.
It was the feel good story of the day. Jerry Coons Jr. (Tucson, Ariz.) finished fourth in his 23rd career Ted Horn 100 start at Du Quoin. It also came in the Bateman Racing team's final Du Quoin start where they competed in their first race in 1982. For his 11th to 4th run on this special, but bittersweet day for the Murphysboro, Ill. based team, Coons earned honors as the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Day.
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USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 31, 2024 – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Du Quoin, Illinois – 1-Mile Dirt Oval – Ted Horn 100
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-30.438; 2. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-30.476; 3. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-30.622; 4. Mitchel Moles, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-30.636; 5. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-30.702; 6. Trey Osborne, 81, BCR-30.982; 7. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-31.103; 8. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-31.186; 9. Don Droud Jr., 8, Cornell-31.212; 10. Mario Clouser, 60, Legacy/Wilson-31.283; 11. Jerry Coons Jr., 55, Bateman-31.459; 12. Saban Bibent, 88, Fetter-31.597; 13. Jimmy Light, 118, Wingo-31.659; 14. Chris Urish, 177, Urish-31.773; 15. Shane Cockrum, 97, Lein-31.911; 16. Matt Goodnight, 24, Haggenbottom-32.205; 17. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-32.288; 18. Danny Jennings, 61, Grace-32.461; 19. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-32.546; 20. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-32.671; 21. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-32.777; 22. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-33.202; 23. Nathan Moore, 48, Thomas/Moore-33.214; 24. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-33.278; 25. Kip Hughes, 160, Hughes-34.096; 26. Danny Long, 44, Long-34.516; 27. Dave Peperak, 777, Peperak-35.152; 28. Brady Bacon, 9, Dyson-NT; 29. Casey Buckman, 25, C-Buck/Sachs-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, shortened to 98 due to rain, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (1), 2. Kody Swanson (5), 3. Briggs Danner (3), 4. Jerry Coons Jr. (11), 5. Logan Seavey (2), 6. Mario Clouser (10), 7. Kyle Steffens (7), 8. Chris Urish (14), 9. Matt Goodnight (16), 10. Chris Fetter (22), 11. Korey Weyant (19), 12. Gregg Cory (20), 13. Chase Stockon (17), 14. Kip Hughes (25), 15. Mitchel Moles (4), 16. Shane Cockrum (15), 17. C.J. Leary (8), 18. Saban Bibent (12), 19. Nathan Moore (23), 20. Danny Jennings (18), 21. Dave Berkheimer (24), 22. Russ Gamester (21), 23. Danny Long (26), 24. Brady Bacon (28), 25. Jimmy Light (13), 26. Trey Osborne (6), 27. Don Droud Jr. (9), 28. Dave Peperak (27). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-31 Logan Seavey, Laps 32-98 Justin Grant.
**Don Droud Jr. flipped on lap 7 of the feature. Jimmy Light flipped on lap 15 of the feature. Danny Long flipped on lap 27 of the feature. Danny Jennings flipped on lap 54 of the feature.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-675, 2-Justin Grant-663, 3-Logan Seavey-608, 4-C.J. Leary-528, 5-Kyle Steffens-438, 6-Kaylee Bryson-388, 7-Bobby Santos-366, 8-Gregg Cory-355, 9-Trey Osborne-354, 10-Dakoda Armstrong-329.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-168, 2-Logan Seavey-147, 3-Robert Ballou-135, 4-C.J. Leary-113, 5-Kyle Cummins-113, 6-Justin Grant-111, 7-Chase Stockon-109, 8-Brady Bacon-104, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-96, 10-Joey Amantea-92.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 20-21, 2024 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 4-Crown Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (29.651)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (30.438)
Hard Charger: Chris Fetter (22nd to 10th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Jerry Coons Jr.